News from the Library of Congress

January 26, 2005

MEDIA ADVISORY

Digital Lecture Series Featuring Brian Cantwell Smith Discussing Digital Disciplines To Be Aired Live on C-SPAN

The John W. Kluge Center at the Library of Congress presents a series of evening lectures on "Managing Knowledge and Creativity in a Digital Context" featuring some of the best known experts in digitally networked communications. All are free and open to the public, and no reservations are required. The 90-minute programs, which will run through March 2005, will be aired live on C-SPAN

The moderators and coordinators for these events are Deanna Marcum, associate librarian for Library Services at the Library of Congress, and Derrick de Kerckhove, holder of the Harissios Papamarkou Chair in Education and Technology at the John W. Kluge Center.

Viewers Can E-Mail Experts

C-SPAN’s viewers can be part of the live lecture series by e-mailing their questions to the experts at digital@loc.gov. CSPAN's viewers can learn more information about the series and archived video of prior lectures in the series on the network’s Web site at www.c-span.org/congress/libraryofcongress.asp.

WHEN: The fourth lecture in the series takes place at 6:30 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 31.

WHO: The speaker is Brian Cantwell Smith, Dean of the Faculty of Information Studies at the University of Toronto and author of "On the Origin of Objects." He combines degrees in computer science and philosophy and is an expert on the interdisciplinary convergence brought about by digitization. His talk is titled "And Is All This Stuff Really Digital After All?"

The programs will be held at 6:30 p.m. in the Mumford Room, sixth floor of the James Madison Building, 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C.

Monday, Feb. 14, 2005 -- David M. Levy is a professor at the Information School of the University of Washington. Author of "Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age," he will discuss the shift of the experience of reading from the fixed page to movable electrons and the effect that has had on language.

Thursday, March 3, 2005 -- Lawrence Lessig is a professor at Stanford Law School and founder of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society. An expert on the issues of copyright and "copyleft," Lessig is the author of "Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace." He also is the inventor of the concept and application known as Creative Commons, which invites the right to use material under specific conditions. His presentation is titled "Taming the Regulation of Culture.

Monday, March 14, 2005 -- Edward L. Ayers is dean of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia and author (with Anne S. Rubin) of "The Valley of the Shadow: Two Communities in the American Civil War" on CD?ROM. Among the questions Ayers will address are the implications for the creation and distribution of knowledge in today's digital environment.

Monday, March 28, 2005 -- Neil Gershenfeld is director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of "When Things Start to Think." His concept, Internet Zero (0), proposes a new infrastructure for the existing Internet that would give an IP address to all electronic devices - thereby eliminating much intermediating code and server technology. His topic is "From the Library of Information to the Library of Things."